Environmental Histories of New Zealand

Eric Pawson + Tom Brooking (editors)

The seventeen papers in Environmental Histories are an eclectic
collection, ranging from economics to the history of ideas, from the
first Maori settlement down to the present, and across many different
environments. The editors sensibly make no attempt to force them
into any kind of overarching scheme. A general familiarity with New
Zealand history and geography would be useful for readers, but none of
the essays assumes much background: indeed some try to cover too much,
trading depth for breadth. As well as students of environmental science
and history, locals and tourists after something more substantial than
popular histories should find Environmental Histories valuable.

Some of the essays are national in scope. "A Fragile Plenty" looks at
pre-European Maori and the New Zealand environment, covering the role of
environmental history in determining settlement dates (around 1250 AD),
the extinction of avifauna and deforestation, and differences between
windward and leeward provinces. "Resource Frontiers" argues that New
Zealand was part of a world economy from first European contact, with
resource extraction a driving concern right from the beginning.

Three essays, though independent, together are almost a mini-history
of New Zealand conservation. "Children of the Burnt Bush" covers
conservation from 1880 to 1930, looking at economic arguments, "scenic
preservation" societies, and botanist Leonard Cockayne and the shift to
an ecological perspective. "The State as Conservationist" continues
the story from 1920 to 1960, focusing on the state's role in forest
management and soil and water conservation. And "A History of New Zealand
Environmental Law" describes the Manapouri development controversy and
the reforms of the fourth Labour government.

"[B]y using high principles such as sustainability in
environmental law, and not defining and prioritising them tightly
enough, Parliament has created a situation where the law's bark
is far greener than its bite."

"Losing Ground?" considers the environmental challenges of the future,
sometimes with more passion than objectivity. And "Pests and Weeds"
recounts the tale of rabbits and gorse in New Zealand, concluding
that there is no simple solution to pest problems and that rather than
"bellicose, national-security rhetoric" New Zealand needs active husbandry
and the recognition of human agency in nature.

Many of the essays touch on Maori concerns, but two focus specifically
on indigenous land tenure and ties to the environment. "Contesting
Resources" looks at the effects of the timber and flax trades on Maori
society before 1840, then briefly at the Treaty of Waitangi, the Native
Land Tribunal, and the extinguishment of native title. Focusing on the
Taranaki area, "Bound to the Land" considers the historical nature of
Maori ties to land and its significance for Waitangi Tribunal claims
and earlier disputes.

Other papers are about specific environments. "Remaking the Grasslands"
chronicles the nineteenth century changes brought about by fire,
grazing, and the introduction of new species. "The Grasslands Revolution
Reconsidered" contrasts the dominant progressive thrust of scientific
agriculture with organic farming, which has come from tentative early
steps to broader recognition. "The Forest" looks at deforestation from
1840 to 1920, with unthinking destruction tempered by growing unease and
disquiet, and then by restraint and reflection. "Mining the Quarry"
focuses on gold-mining, disputes over waste disposal and conflicts
with agriculture, and the state's role as arbitrator: the New Zealand
government did far less to check miners than their Californian and
Victorian counterparts. And "Swamp Drainage" portrays the destruction
of New Zealand wetlands as an imperial project.

"Making Urban Places" situates towns liminally, as centres of
progress against nature, as vulnerable to natural hazards, and
(as suburbs) combining environmental amenity and urban convenience.
"The Twentieth-century Home Garden" uses gardening manuals to follow
changes in suburban gardens, which placed "the rare and exotic above
the native".

"The persistent use of barriers to exclude the 'wilderness'
and other variants of the external environment is comparable
to putting walls on a house, and a preference for certain
native plants, which look more like domesticated garden cultivars
than wild species, is akin to the keeping of pets."

And "The Meanings of Mountains" stretches over four different topics:
European attitudes towards mountains and the early explorers, the roles
of mountains in tourism and early nationalism, in climbing and tramping
in the first half of the century, and in the formation of the national
park system.